HULLENSIANS 7 SELBY 20
NORTHERN DIVISION YORKSHIRE LEAGUE DIVISION 2.

Faced with a difficult away fixture for the opening league game under the stewardship of new skipper Duncan Hardy, Selby’s local Australian personal trainer, the Swans suffered a major blow even before kick off when star full back Dan Porter suffered a groin strain in the warm up and was forced to watch from the sidelines.
He will have been impressed though, with the results of the reshuffle, which saw young Alex Webster bravely slot into the centre just months after undergoing major surgery following the injury which cut short his sojourn in New Zealand, and Iain Adamson give a masterful display in the No 15 shirt, posing constant threats with his pace & lines of running.

The early pressure was from the home side as their bulky pack spoiled Selby’s first phase possession and put their own threequarters onto the front foot.
Superb defence throughout the Selby team with their young back row of Jay Robinson,James Blaymire & Matty Wood leading the way, kept the visitors in the hunt & although they leaked the first score from No8 Conroy, it seemed obvious that the Hull side would not keep up the pace.
And it was only two minutes later that Adamson came into the line with a blistering run to set up ace finisher Ben Lunt who stormed to the line. Although eighteen year old stand off Josh Cruise ( amusingly renamed Tom in the match programme ) was not successful with the conversion attempt he quickly made amends with a penalty, & the accuracy of his kicking from hand constantly drove the tiring Hull forwards into their own half.

After the interval both sides started making use of the new law allowing rolling subs with Hull introducing some heavy artillery, particularly coach Julian Barkworth, but with the Swan’s coach Richard Nicholson needing to be more astute, having just two replacements,his resting of second row Rob Triffit to allow recovery from a knock, with youngster Tom Bell coming in & punching his weight in the front row was a masterstroke.
The pace of the Selby backs always threatened and with yet another youngster, Jack Daniels maturing like a fine Malt with every game at scrum half it was no surprise when Robinson capped his hardworking display in setting up a score for footballing star Webster to increase the lead.
The average age of the visitors then dropped dramatically as veteran prop Andrew Pocklington was replaced by the upcoming No 8 Ben Booth

The lead was further stretched when with the forwards supplying the grunt, the ball was fed to Adamson who linked once again with Lunt on his hunt for the line. This time Cruise struck the ball like a missile over the crossbar to seal a fine team effort with all players working their socks off for their comrades.

There is still a long way to go to the end of the season, but with attendance at training at almost 100%, with varied & interesting sessions organised by the coaches, and players yet to return, this should be a year of consolidation. However with the first round of games supplying some eyebrow raising results it will require dedication & commitment from everbody to give the end of season result that all would wish.

SELBY LINE-UP:

15 Full Back Adamson I
14 Wing Lunt B
13 Centre Webster A
12 Centre Knowles M
11 Wing Clark S
10 Stand Off Cruise J
9 Scrum Half Daniels J
1 Prop Pocklington A
2 Hooker Greenfield J
3 Prop Hardy D (Captain)
4 Lock Brown K
5 Lock Triffitt R
6 Flanker Robinson J
7 Flanker Blaymire J
8 No 8 Wood M

Substitutes (Rolling Substitutes – 8 Allowed)

Bell T (For Triffitt R – 41 Minutes)
Booth B (For Pocklington A – 58 Minutes)
Porter D (Not Used)

NORTHERN DIVISION YORKSHIRE LEAGUE DIVISION 2
SEASON 2011-2012.

TEAM P W D L FOR AGAINST DIFF B.P.'s POINTS DED

Skipton 1 1 0 0 50 11 39 1 5
Sheffield Medicals 1 1 0 0 47 22 25 1 5
Leodiensian 1 1 0 0 42 23 19 1 5
Ripon 1 1 0 0 30 26 4 1 5
Yarnbury 1 1 0 0 27 25 2 1 5
West Leeds 1 1 0 0 17 3 14 0 4
SELBY 1 1 0 0 20 7 13 0 4
Moortown 1 0 0 1 26 30 -4 2 2
West Park Leeds 1 0 0 1 25 27 -2 1 1
Bradford Salem 1 0 0 1 22 47 -25 1 1
Hullensians 1 0 0 1 7 20 -13 0 0
Doncaster Phoenix 1 0 0 1 3 17 -14 0 0
Roundhegians 1 0 0 1 23 42 -19 0 0
Castleford 1 0 0 1 11 50 -39 0 0